PAINTED CAVE. A final feature of particular
interest in the back country of the monument is the Painted Cave. This
art gallery in the cliffs decorates a canyon wall some 12 miles from
headquarters. Once a large population inhabited this canyon of Capulin
Creek, but most of the evidences of habitation have vanished except for
the extensive pictographs on the weatherproof back wall of the Painted
Cave. The arch of the cave is shallow but wide, so that a smooth area
over 50 feet long was available to the artists; several dozen drawings
in a variety of reds and blacks adorn this surface. It is probable that
many generations of artists used the cave, since space finally ran out
and later drawings are superimposed on their faded predecessors.
Moreover, evidence of historic, or post-Spanish, artistry is herea
sketch of a conquistador on horseback, another of a mission church
complete with cross.